Wild that Elon Musk may have prevented a nuclear strike. Not really sure what to make of this since I don’t trust anything he says.

  • nat_turner_overdrive [he/him]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    39
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    This stuff is being written about like he’s wretched for doing it but as far as I know Starlink’s TOS specifically says it can’t be used for weapons (Checked, " Starlink is not designed or intended for use with or in offensive or defensive weaponry.") so this is just melon enforcing contract terms (lol) in order to prevent starlink from being targeted by Russia. Pretty sure the Russians could plink his low orbit satellites out of the sky if they decided they were a threat.

    • Shrike502@lemmygrad.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      19
      ·
      1 year ago

      Russians could plink his low orbit satellites out of the sky if they decided they were a threat.

      Technically - yes. Realistically - doubt it. Might constitute an attack on USA, and amusingly Kremlin is just sane enough to try and avoid that (unlike certain others)

      • nat_turner_overdrive [he/him]@hexbear.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        12
        ·
        1 year ago

        Oh yeah, shooting down Starlink satellites would be the worst case response. More likely Musk was worried about his companies being targeted by sanctions or bans if Starlink got sorted into the “military industrial complex” category

    • SimulatedLiberalism [none/use name]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      It seems pretty clear that Russia has already found ways to jam their satellite terminals (no need to even shoot down their satellites) so it’s just a face saving move than to say Starlink has been rendered completely useless for military purpose.

  • sovietknuckles [they/them]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    28
    ·
    1 year ago

    Shotwell didn’t provide details on how SpaceX disrupted Ukraine’s use of Starlink but said, “there are things that we can do to limit their ability to do that… there are things that we can do and have done.”

    Now I’m curious what did, if not simply turning it off like the title suggests

  • muzzle@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    27
    ·
    1 year ago

    But the truly galaxy brain move is in this article:

    After CNN’s reporting, Musk reversed course, tweeting “the hell with it … we’ll just keep funding Ukraine govt for free.”

    Gwynne Shotwell, Musk’s president at SpaceX, was livid at Musk’s reversal, according to Isaacson.

    “The Pentagon had a $145 million check ready to hand to me, literally,” Isaacson quotes Shotwell as saying. “Then Elon succumbed to the bullshit on Twitter and to the haters at the Pentagon who leaked the story.”

  • RyanGosling [none/use name]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    17
    ·
    1 year ago

    Neoliberals will call communism a failure while they entrust the victory against their mortal enemy in the hands of a unpredictable manchild who likes to LARP as an underdog against “the system” and “current thing”. Truly the smartest bunch of people.

  • Shrike502@lemmygrad.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    9
    ·
    1 year ago

    Really? Has that stopped him before? Ya know, when Moskva got hit? When naval bases and ships in Sevastopol were getting swarm droned? Now he’s suddenly worried?

  • uralsolo [he/him]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    1 year ago

    I’m going to assume that the truth is that Starlink sucks and had an unrelated issue that prevented this drone strike from going forward.